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As we close out 2009 we wanted to thank you
for your continued support of CXO Ventures and CXO Private Equity. Despite
seeing one of the most dynamic public and private markets in history,
our firm had another successful year for our private funds and
investment and advisory activities. An additional achievement in 2009
was the growth of our public audience through this blog. Blog highlights include:

In 2010 PureVC.com will continue to focus on venture capital,
private equity, technology and markets. However, be prepared to see
some new ideas and perspectives as we introduce some of our new
contributing partners.

We thank you again for your continued support and wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010!

Not that I really care or that I even keep track, but today someone informed me that TechCrunch has posted the top 100 VC blogs based on number of Google Reader subscribers. This blog came in at #53 and I thank all the readers who continue to enjoy its content.

When this blog started it was more of an experiment to help me flush out my thoughts and post on interesting topics specifically in the field of venture capital. Over time, I really couldn't help myself but post on all areas of private equity that I am involved in including real estate, hedge funds, leveraged buyouts, and general market commentary. Hopefully I haven't alienated too many readers by broadening my horizon.

While Google Reader is only one source of readers of this blog and this list doesn't really mean much, it does confirm that there is a hunger out in cyberspace for information on the overall venture and private equity industries. And we all know that where there is demand, supply will come.

I am happy to be one of those suppliers of information. Feel free to drop me a line anytime with questions, ideas, or comments. Thanks again for joining me in this rewarding endeavor.

I've always thought it was kind of silly the way people disclose their financial interests. People usually write "Full Disclosure - ..." then goes on to say that they own an interest in the company they are talking about or they own a position in the stock they are touting. I think it is a pretty silly thing to say that because in this world it is obvious that people look out for themselves and their own interests. If they don't then they don't survive.

In the blogosphere, you will often read that someone does or does not have an interest in what they are writing about. Maybe they are writing on their blog about some subject that they find interesting but do not have a financial interest in, but the fact that they have their own blog and are promoting it essentially means that they have an interest in the success of the work. Thus self-promotion essentially runs counter to the full disclosure that a person has no interests in the products or things they are writing about. We live in a world of shameless self-promotion and we are all guilty of it.

Thus I have developed a full disclosure that any capitalist should consider adopting.

FULL DISCLOSURE:

I am a capitalist. What that means is that everything I do I do for my interest or any of these entities that are in my sphere of influence - my family, colleagues, portfolio companies, my community, or my profession. Given that I am a capitalist, a lot of what I do during the day is geared toward stimulating profits or the progress of the free markets. In short, I make money and help other people make money. Most of what I say or do works toward that effect.

Every half year or so I finally make some time to sit down and improve this blog. Today's I have officially joined Twitter. I know I am late to the game but in an effort to not feel too dated and be better about keeping up with the system, I have joined Twitter. I'm not one of those people that can keep up pages on Facebook, MySpace, or LinkedIn. Thus, I've chosen Twitter because it can easily integrate into my existing blog and because I can keep in touch when I am on the road. I invite any of my readers to follow me on twitter if they like. My username is CXO.

In an effort to better know my readers and stimulate some discussion, I've decided to add polling to this blog. I guess I am always ranting and raving about so many topics that I feel it would be nice to see what other people think of things. I am using the free service from Vizu.

For those of you who don't know Vizu, it is a startup company focused on research and polling online. Full disclosure is that it is a portfolio company of a fund that I am a limited partner in. However, I will say that while this space is interesting, it is not an investment that I probably would have made (I will save that for another discussion). Anyways, I was looking for a free service and I thought I would give them a test try. If you guys don't like the service or think it is too cumbersome, let me know.

So the first question is related to Blackstone. Given all the hype and news surrounding the IPO filing, if given the opportunity, would you invest in the IPO at the offering price?

I know the price is not determined yet, but let's just assume that the valuation is $40 billion.

I will run each poll for 7 days. In an effort to get the opinion of PureVC blog readers, the polls are not public and will have the password: purevc

I've been running this blog for a few years and every week and month my readership has been increasing. I'm getting more emails from entrepreneurs, investment managers, students, and curious people than ever before. Some people respond to specific posts, some people have specific questions they want answered, some people are pitching their businesses, and others are looking for funds or advice. I welcome all of this communication and will try to get back to you as soon as possible, following my own set of Business Etiquette rules.

At CXO Ventures and CXO Private Equity, we have always had a relatively closed network of investors, entrepreneurs, investment managers, and advisors. We tend to do business with people we know or people who know someone that we know well. It's not because we don't trust people or because we don't do due diligence. We have found (and others have too), that investing in successful people or people you have worked with before (and thus know very well) has a higher likelihood of success. In addition to feeling more comfortable working with people within our network, we feel we are better serving our investors and adhering to our fiduciary duty to manage their financial interests. In some areas of Private Equity such as Real Estate and Leveraged Buyouts, we feel it is essential to know the developer or the management. In other areas such as Venture Capital or Hedge Funds it is important but less realistic to have every deal done within our network.

This blog has generated a lot of interest in our firm. We have found that the readers of this blog tend to be a select group of people. If you have found this blog, you have found it by word of mouth, by reading someone else who links to us, or by searching for a specific topic on Google and wading through those results to find us. We have been close to doing business with several people who have come to us through this blog. In fact, there are definitely readers with whom I ping regularly on several topics.

In an effort to formally expand our network and to perhaps better serve you readers, I am extending a formal invitation to readers who want to be added to our network list - entrepreneurs, investment managers, investors, students, and anybody else. Here are some details of each list:

Entrepreneurs - Network of entrepreneurs in our network that we would typically contact if there is an opportunity within one of our companies or if we have an idea we are willing to fund and are looking for someone to run with it. If we know an investor that may be interested in finding someone with a particular background, we will pass the entrepreneur's information on to them.

Investment Managers - Network of managers that are looking for deals in a specified category of Private Equity. We refer deals that come to us that fit the profiles of our managers.

Investors - Investors with an appetite for a specific type of deal or category. We see a lot of deals that we pass on. We can direct you to these deals or to people we know to help find what you are looking for.

Students/Interns - Although we do not offer an internship yet, we maintain a list of interested persons that we may have unique opportunities for in the future.

If you have an interest to be added to any of these networks, please contact me with your information (email, phone, address) and a little blurb about yourself and what you are looking for. We are sparing in our use of our network lists and typically we send out notes to people who confirm that they wish to continue receiving our contact. I hope this is ultimately of benefit to both of us. I am hopeful it will increase the efficiency of our deal and job matchmaking.

Please note the following: This is not a solicitation for investment. We do not solicit investors. We do not share information outside of our firm. We are protective of proprietary deal information. We will seek permission for information sharing for each specific transmission.

I've gone ahead and joined Feedburner's VC Network after accepting an invitation from Brad Feld, the network moderator. I've read Brad's blog, Feld Thoughts, for quite some time now. One of the best things about his blog is his Term Sheet Series, where he and his crony Jason Mendelson discuss the key terms in a financing term sheet. I highly recommend it.

In signing up, I did notice that there are quite a few VC bloggers. Brad has referred to their "replication like tribbles". I am impressed by the proliferation of the VC blogger. I think I will start referring to us as the "VC Bloggies" because I sense our number will continue to grow. One thing I did notice is that Brad and Jason have started another blog called Ask The VC, that addresses questions from readers. Some of these questions are very similar to ones I have been receiving and have addressed in my VC Primer posts. I think it's a great site and look forward to seeing their responses.

One thing that is clear from the VC network and the proliferation of the VC Bloggies is that every VC comes in different shapes and sizes. If you read these blogs you will see that everybody has a permutation of their venture capital method and strategy. I think it is another great resource for the entrepreneur who is trying to get in the head of a VC. Collectively, these VCs control a lot of investing dollars and knowing what they are thinking will get you ahead of the curve.

Anyways, thanks for taking the time to aggregate us and form this network Brad.

I apologize for the lack of posts this past week. The past month has been a very busy one. We are considering opening an Asia and a Europe office and thus I spent three weeks in Shanghai and two weeks in Western Europe on a mix of business and pleasure. I´ve been laptopless for the Europe part so the blogs are coming from internet cafes.

At any rate, I wanted to say a few things about what is going on in both China and Europe. China has received a lot of media attention on their booming economy and I would agree that things have changed significantly over the past several years. While things are different, it is still obvious that they are not ready for the new economy and what it will require.

Some brief observations on China. They are still largely on a cash only system with little use of plastic or banks. The people I have spoken to don´t trust the government and still put money under their mattresses. It is hard to imagine an information era without the digitization of finance. Deception also remains a significant MO of the Chinese. Even the locals will tell you that part of the Chinese way is that you cannot trust anyone and that they will even rip-off the locals. It is hard to imagine doing business with people you do not trust completely. However, one good thing about the Chinese hasn´t changed - they remain in love with brand names. The Chinese perphaps even more than any other people have a strong love of top quality brands. Even if they can´t afford them, they want them and will pay for them. This is perhaps a major reason that Western companies are going to be able to penetrate the market.

I do think China has come very far very fast, although I suspect there will be a contraction phase and they will need to absorb all of these changes before moving even farther.

Western Europe on the other hand is looking more and more like the USA. The last time I traveled through Europe was pre-Euro. Now those inexpensive countries such as Czech Republic and Spain are terribly expensive. To make matters worse, the locals I spoke with said that their cost of living has risen extensively. Mostly because prices are now in Euros but salaries have remained as low as they were pre-Euro. While visiting some friends who live in Catalonia, I found that the culture is changing as well. Whereas the afternoon siesta was a time for napping and relaxing, younger generations and foreign companies are starting to work regular days without the siesta. English is spoken freely and happily in most countries (except France).

There are clearly lots of opportunities in both Europe and Asia, particularly for companies who want a truly global product.

Before I forget, one aspect of traveling has been a lot cheaper than before - Skype and Gizmo are being used in every internet cafe...

I wanted to let everyone know that I finally figured out how to map my domain from typepad to the domain www.purevc.com. Previously, only the home page of the blog was being mapped but all of the links and posts were still on the typepad servers. I have gone ahead and fully mapped the domain over. All of the posts and links will work but they may now have different addresses. Just in case any of my readers were wondering what the heck was going on.

I am starting to finally tidy up my blog and am now trying to get an accurate count of the number of subscribers or readers that I have. Despite all of the advances in the blogsphere over the past few years, there is still no great way to track the number of readers on a blog. There are a ton of feed services that get my blog but the services don't identify how many end users actually get the feed. It is difficult for me to estimate using both the number of page impressions as well as the feed statistics. At any rate, what I would like to ask you guys to do is to subscribe to the feed by email. I know some of you probably fear junk mail or whatever but the feedblitz service promises no junk mail. I am just trying to get an idea of how many readers there are as I am considering doing away with all advertising on the site whatsoever.

Once again I have been asked by a friend and colleague why I blog. There is now a long list of VCs that are blogging, all perhaps for different reasons. Some to share, some to market, some to profit, some to interact, some to contribute, and quite honestly, some to hear themselves talk to an audience.

For me, blogging is an experience that I enjoy. I get to tell people my thoughts and experiences, and I get a lot of feedback. I learn a hell of a lot that ultimately helps me get closer to how technology is changing our society. I think ultimately is it making me a better VC.